Daily Times

CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) Pakistan on Sunday announced to reopen flight operations with virus-hit China after the federal government acquired coronavirus testing kits.

Islamabad had on Jan. 29 suspended flight operations to and from China amid rising casualties from the novel virus outbreak that the World Health Organization (WHO) promoted to a global health emergency last week.

Over 500 Pakistani students are based in Wuhan, where the first cases of the coronavirus were observed in December. So far, at least four Pakistani students in central Wuhan have been diagnosed with the coronavirus.

Flights will resume at 12.00 a.m. local time (1900GMT) Sunday, said Aviation Ministry spokeswoman Duriya Amir.

Air China will make the first flight to land in Karachi, Pakistan on Monday morning after taking off from the Chinese capital Beijing, she told Anadolu Agency.

National carrier Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) and two Chinese airlines — Air China and China Southern Airlines — will operate a total 12 flights per week between the two countries.

Notably, some airlines, including British Airways, have suspended flights to China due to warnings of the coronavirus outbreak. Germany, Britain and other countries have issued warnings about travel to China.

Russia also sealed its remote far-eastern border with China as a precaution on Thursday. Some countries have banned entry for travellers from Wuhan, the central Chinese city where the virus first surfaced.